Rockland Trust Co. Purchases 7,204 Shares of Blackstone Inc. $BX

Rockland Trust Co. lifted its holdings in Blackstone Inc. (NYSE:BX) by 339.0% during the third quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 9,329 shares of the asset manager’s stock after purchasing an additional 7,204 shares during the period. Rockland Trust Co.’s holdings in Blackstone were worth $1,594,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in BX. First National Trust Co lifted its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 24.6% during the third quarter. First National Trust Co now owns 9,660 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $1,650,000 after buying an additional 1,906 shares during the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC raised its stake in Blackstone by 22.4% during the 3rd quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 70,345 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $12,018,000 after purchasing an additional 12,856 shares during the last quarter. Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Blackstone by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Edgemoor Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 152,274 shares of the asset manager’s stock valued at $26,016,000 after purchasing an additional 430 shares during the period. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. increased its holdings in shares of Blackstone by 1.7% during the 3rd quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. now owns 21,445 shares of the asset manager’s stock worth $3,664,000 after purchasing an additional 367 shares during the period. Finally, Marest Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of Blackstone in the third quarter valued at about $1,150,000. 70.00% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting Blackstone

Here are the key news stories impacting Blackstone this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Blackstone increased its stake in AI startup Anthropic to roughly $1 billion, giving BX bigger exposure to the high-growth AI/chatbot space and potential upside if Anthropic scales. Blackstone boosts stake in Anthropic – Reuters
• Positive Sentiment: Blackstone co-led a $10 billion debt package to Australian AI-infrastructure developer Firmus, a large fee-bearing financing win that deepens the firm’s play in AI infrastructure and credit markets. Firmus $10B debt package – Reuters
• Positive Sentiment: Reports say Brookfield is in talks to buy Blackstone’s Fidere business for about $1.2 billion, which would crystallize value from a portfolio asset and improve liquidity/deployment flexibility. Brookfield in talks to buy Fidere – Reuters
• Positive Sentiment: Recent quarterly results (late Jan) beat estimates — EPS and revenue came in ahead of expectations — supporting the earnings/fee-growth story that underpins BX’s valuation. Blackstone stock profile and recent results – MarketBeat
• Neutral Sentiment: Management’s presentation at the Bank of America Financial Services Conference was posted (transcript), useful for details on strategy, capital allocation and fundraising but no single market-moving announcement. BOA conference transcript – Seeking Alpha
• Neutral Sentiment: Analysts and commentary pieces note that Blackstone’s business mix is quietly reshaping (more AI/credit activity), which adds strategic context but not an immediate catalyst. Analyst commentary on BX strategy – Yahoo Finance
• Neutral Sentiment: Coverage of founder Steve Schwarzman’s philanthropic plans (foundation building) is notable for governance/branding context but unlikely to move near-term fundamentals. Schwarzman foundation plans – WSJ
• Negative Sentiment: Jefferies trimmed its price target on BX from $185 to $161 (still a Buy), a downgrade to the upside case that could temper short-term upside and investor sentiment. Jefferies lowers price target – MarketScreener

Analysts Set New Price Targets

BX has been the subject of several recent research reports. Rothschild & Co Redburn cut their price target on Blackstone from $165.00 to $158.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Monday, February 2nd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Blackstone from $200.00 to $215.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, October 21st. Jefferies Financial Group lowered their price target on shares of Blackstone from $185.00 to $161.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Blackstone from $171.00 to $164.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, January 30th. Finally, BNP Paribas Exane dropped their price target on shares of Blackstone from $167.00 to $156.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, January 12th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $173.68.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Blackstone news, major shareholder Holdings Iv Gp Mana Blackstone purchased 384,468 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 19th. The stock was acquired at an average cost of $26.01 per share, with a total value of $10,000,012.68. Following the completion of the acquisition, the insider directly owned 16,525,117 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $429,818,293.17. This represents a 2.38% increase in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Tactical Opportunit Blackstone sold 1,596,142 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $10.00, for a total transaction of $15,961,420.00. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 2,161 shares in the company, valued at approximately $21,610. This represents a 99.86% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Company insiders own 1.00% of the company’s stock.

Blackstone Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of Blackstone stock opened at $133.78 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $98.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 34.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.02 and a beta of 1.76. Blackstone Inc. has a 12-month low of $115.66 and a 12-month high of $190.09. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 0.76 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $151.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $158.84.

Blackstone (NYSE:BX) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, January 29th. The asset manager reported $1.75 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.54 by $0.21. Blackstone had a net margin of 20.89% and a return on equity of 22.17%. The firm had revenue of $4.36 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.69 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.69 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 41.4% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts expect that Blackstone Inc. will post 5.87 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Blackstone Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, February 17th. Shareholders of record on Monday, February 9th will be paid a $1.49 dividend. This is an increase from Blackstone’s previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. This represents a $5.96 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.5%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Monday, February 9th. Blackstone’s payout ratio is presently 153.61%.

Blackstone Profile

Blackstone Inc (NYSE: BX) is a global investment firm focused on alternative asset management. Founded in 1985 by Stephen A. Schwarzman and Peter G. Peterson and headquartered in New York City, the firm organizes and manages investment vehicles that acquire and operate businesses, real estate and credit investments, as well as provide hedge fund solutions and other alternative strategies for institutional and individual investors.

Blackstone’s business is organized around several principal investment platforms.